Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Calculator

Page 1 N Hopley. Jan 2013. TI-Nspire OS3.2

Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Calculator Guide

Texas Instruments TI-Nspire Handheld (Touchpad with Operating System 3.2)

This short guide is designed to instruct you on how to set up your handheld to perform calculations that you will typically do in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. This guide will not attempt to explain the underlying Numeracy or Maths concepts. Page 1 Layout of the keypad, highlighting keys used in this guide 2 The General Settings Menu 3 Restoring the General Settings to Factory Default Settings 4 Using the Nspire for Calculations with Factory Default Settings 5 Using the Nspire in Normal Calculation Mode 6 Using the Nspire in Fixed Decimal Place Mode 7 & 8 Using the Nspire in Scientific Notation Mode 9 Using the Nspire in Engineering mode 10 Using the Nspire in Degree Mode for Calculations 10 Using the Nspire in Degree Mode for Drawing Graphs 11 Calculating Reciprocals 12 Converting numbers between Decimal and Binary 13 Preparing the Nspire for Exams or Tests 14 Removing the Nspire from Press-to-Test mode Page 1 - Layout of the keypad, highlighting keys used in this guide. Touchpad/ Cursor Control Scratchpad Tab Control (press to access blue items) “to the Power of” Exponent

Home

Menu

Delete

Catalogue Fraction Template

(press /p)

Force Decimal Approximation (press /·)

Enter

Negative


Page 2 - The General Settings Menu The General Settings Menu controls how the Nspire displays answers to calculations. Go to the Home screen by pressing c.

Press 5 to select Settings This will open a new pop-up menu, as shown

Press 2 to select Settings This will open another pop-up menu, as shown Press 1 to select General

You will now see the General Settings menu. You can either press e, or you can use the Touchpad, to move to different options. You can press to open up a drop-down menu, and then use and to move through the settings. You can either press ·, or you can click on the centre of the touchpad x, to make your setting choice.

This guide will demonstrate how several of these menu settings can be used to control how answers to calculations are displayed. You can also access the General Settings menu from within any Document or Scratchpad, without having to go back to the Home screen. Simply use the touchpad to move the cursor arrow over the cog/battery icon in the top right corner. Then click on the centre of the touchpad to select the icon, which will then open up the first pop-up menu.


Page 3 - Restoring the General Settings to Factory Default Settings It is often helpful to reset the general settings to avoid unexpected behaviour when starting a new calculation task. This resetting action is called ‘Restoring settings to factory default settings’. Go to the Home screen by pressing c

Press 5 to select Settings Press 2 to select Settings

Press 1 to select General

Select

Select to restore the settings.

Select

Select to apply the restored settings.


Page 4 - Using the Nspire for Calculations with Factory Default Settings Restore Factory Default Settings by first going to the Home screen by pressing c.

Press 5 to select Settings



Select and then to Restore factory default settings. Notice that Calculation Mode is set to Auto This means that the Nspire will try and give answers exactly, without writing them as decimals.

Select and then . Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ».

When you type 2 p 3and then press ·, the display should look like that shown

Notice that the answer is displayed as an exact fraction.

Press / then ·.

This selects ≈ and displays the last calculation’s answer as a decimal approximation.

You can force the Nspire to give a decimal answer straight away by simply including a decimal point somewhere in your calculation - even at the end of a number will do. For example, you could

EITHER type in 2 ^p 3 which will display

€

2.3

OR type in 2 p 3^ which will display

€

23.


Page 5 - Using the Nspire in Normal Calculation Mode We are taking ‘Normal Calculation Mode’ to mean here that the Nspire will give answers to all calculations as decimal approximations, rather than exact values. Go to the Home screen by pressing c.




Select and then to Restore factory default settings. For Display Digits select Float

For Calculation Mode select Approximate

Select and then . These settings will display all answers as decimals, with up to 12 decimal places on show. Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ». When you type 2 p 3and then press ·, the display should look like that shown

Notice that the displayed answer has been rounded to 12 decimal places. The Nspire actually knows the answer to 14 decimal places, and it uses these extra known digits to round the answer correctly.


Page 6 - Using the Nspire in Fixed Decimal Place Mode In this example, we will select 3 decimal places. Go to the Home screen by pressing c.




Select and then to Restore factory default settings.

For Display Digits select Fix 3 (scroll down the list to below all the Float settings) For Calculation Mode select Approximate

Select and then . Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ».

When you type 1^2345and then press ·, the display should look like that shown

Notice that the number has been rounded to 3 decimal places.


Page 7 & 8 - Using the Nspire in Scientific Notation Mode Go to the Home screen by pressing c.




Select and then to Restore factory default settings. For Display Digits select Float For Exponential Format select Scientific For Calculation Mode select Approximate

Select and then .

Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ». When you type 12345 and then press ·, the display should look like that shown Notice that the number has not been rounded, as the FLOAT setting was chosen.

If you wanted Scientific Notation to 3 decimal places, press c 5 2 1

For Display Digits select Fix 3

Select and then .

Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ».

When you type 12345 and then press ·, the display should look like that shown Notice that the displayed result has been rounded to 3 decimal places.


If you wanted Scientific Notation to 3 significant figures places, press c 5 2 1

For Display Digits select Float 3

Select and then .

Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ».

When you type 12345 and then press ·, the display should look like that shown Notice that the displayed result has been rounded to 3 significant figures.

If you wanted to do the calculation

€

(1.23 ×104 ) ÷ (5.67 ×10−8) You would type: 1^23i4p5^67iv8

and then press ·. Note that pressing i4 means the same as

€

×104

… pressing · becomes….

Alternatively, you could enter the calculation using the fraction template. Type: /p 1^23i4 e 5^67iv8

to give a screen like that shown and then press ·.

The above results are displayed with 3 significant figures (Float 3) in Scientific mode.

The same result in just Float mode would look like


Page 9 - Using the Nspire in Engineering mode Go to the Home screen by pressing c




Select and then to Restore factory default settings. For Display Digits select Float For Exponential Format select Engineering For Calculation Mode select Approximate

Select and then .

Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ». When you type 12345 and then press ·, the display should look like that shown Notice that the number has not been rounded, as the Float setting was chosen.


Page 10 - Using the Nspire in Degree Mode for Calculations Go to the Home screen by pressing c.




For Angle select Degree

Select and then .

Page 10 - Using the Nspire in Degree Mode for Drawing Graphs Go to the Home screen by pressing c.



Press 2 to select Graphs & Geometry

For Graphing Angle select Degree

Select and then .


Page 11 - Calculating Reciprocals The ‘reciprocal of a number’ is a fraction formed by putting the number in the denominator of a fraction. Go to the Home screen by pressing c.




Select and then to Restore factory default settings. For Display Digits select Float

Select and then .

Access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ». To calculate the reciprocal of 123

EITHER type in /p1e123 to display

€

1123

OR type in 123lv1 to display

€

123−1

OR type in 1 p 123 to display

€

1/123

…..and then press ·. You can convert the answer from a fraction to a decimal, by doing the following… EITHER press / then · This selects ≈ and displays a decimal approximation.

OR Press b

Press 2 to select Number Press 1 to select Convert to Decimal

This should give a screen as shown

Press · to convert the fraction to its decimal. Notice that the number has not been rounded, as the Float setting is currently chosen.

… pressing · becomes….


Page 12 - Converting numbers between Decimal and Binary. First, restore factory default settings by pressing c

Press 5 to select Settings Press 2 to select Settings


Select and to restore the settings.

Select and then . To convert the decimal number 123 to binary, first access the Scratchpad Calculator by pressing ». Type in 123

Press k to access the catalogue, as shown

Press B to quickly locate the commands that start with the letter B.

Move down the list to highlight Base2 Select Base2 by pressing · Press · again to complete the conversion. Notice the binary number is prefixed by 0b [the number zero and the letter b]

To convert the binary number 11011 to decimal, type:

0B11011· As the handheld is already in decimal mode, it will display the decimal equivalent to binary 11011.

If you want to have the Nspire work exclusively in Binary, go to the Home screen by pressing c.



Press 1 to select General Scroll down, and for Base select Binary

Select and then .


Page 13 - Preparing the Nspire for Exams or Tests ‘Press to Test’ mode temporarily disables all current documents and denies access to programming libraries. Switch the Nspire handheld off. Hold down the d key and then press c This will give the screen shown on the right

Don’t select yet – you need to configure the correct restrictions first….. You will deselect only four options, as these are all allowed: ‘Disable inequality graphing’ ‘Limit trigonometric functions’ ‘Disable logbx template and summation functions’ ‘Disable Polynomial Root Finder and Simultaneous Equation Solver’ Leave the remaining seven items selected.

Click on . This will cause your Nspire to re-boot. After a short time, it will display the screen shown on the right

Click on . This will give the screen shown on the right Notice the small padlock icon in the top right hand corner. Also the yellow LED at the top of the handheld will be flashing with two short pulses. You are now ready to use your Nspire in an exam.


Page 14 - Removing the Nspire from Press-to-Test mode The only way to exit Press-to-Test mode is by physically connecting your Nspire to another device. You will need a USB cable and another Nspire Handheld. Connect your Nspire to another Nspire handheld using a USB cable. Switch both Nspires ON.

Open the Scratchpad on your Nspire.��This will give the screen shown on the right

Press ~ to open the Documents menu. This will give the screen shown on the right

Select 9: Press-to-Test and then select 1: Exit Press-to-Test. �This will cause your Nspire to re-boot. After a short time, it will display the normal Home screen. You have now Exited Press-to-Test mode.


Further Information on Press-to-Test Restrictions The following information is from the official TI-Nspire User Guide, and it will clarify what functionality of the Nspire is not available to you when in Press-to-Test mode.


